John Wilfrid Linnett

Who was John Wilfrid Linnett?

John Wilfrid Linnett FRS was Vice-Chancellor at the University of Cambridge from 1973 to 1975. He was for many years a Fellow of the Queen's College, Oxford, and a demonstrator in Inorganic Chemistry at the University of Oxford.

He was born on 3 August 1913 in Coventry in England and educated at King Henry VIII School and St Johns College, University of Oxford, and was later a Junior Fellow there. He was appointed Professor of Physical Chemistry at Cambridge University in 1965. He was Master of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, on the Council of the Royal Society, and was President of the Faraday Society. He died of a heart attack in the Athenaeum Club, London, on 7 November 1975, only five weeks after ceasing to be Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge.

Throughout his career as a chemist, he was noted for his wide interests, making substantial contributions in theoretical chemistry, mass spectrometry, explosion limits, atom recombination reactions, combustion, and several other areas.

In 1960, Linnett originated a modification to the octet rule, originally proposed by G.N. Lewis, concerning valency electrons.